SMOKE PALL OVER CITY OF KIEV
Dnieper Battle At Peak i Bv Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, October 12. Reports from all points along the Dnieper Line indicate that the battle for the western bank has reached a climax, says the British United Press. The German resistance is at its height, but General von Mannstein is unable to withstand the Russian pressure or prevent the flow of reinforcements and supplies which is pouring uninterruptedly across the Dnieper at scores of places. The Russians are making a tremendous effort to overwhelm the German resistance and break the line at many points, preparing the way for the next surge westward.
Tonight’s Russian communique says that the Soviet forces in the middle Dnieper area continued the battles for widening their bridgeheads on the right bank and substantial successes were achieved in reparate sectors. Messages state that the Germans are throwing in great numbers of fresh troops in an effort to wipe out the Russian bridgeheads. The Germans are counterattacking with every man they have, but thev are making no headway. The struggle is particularly fierce north and south of Kiev. A correspondent says the Germans are fighting like tigers to save Kiev, and if they fail it will be because they were decisively beaten, and not because, to use their own words, they withdrew to shorten their lines. He reports that at Kremenchug, 170 miles further down the Dnieper River, the Russians are steadily widening their hold on the western bank. Siberian Troops Used. The Germans are resisting stubbornly, but though they may gain local successes the tide of battle is flowing against them. Front line reports say that the Germans failed to check the Russian drive on Kiev where infantry from eastern Russia and Siberia is advancing under very difficult conditions, often wading in deep black mud. German demolition squads are believed to have begun destroying the city, over which there hangs a great pall of smoke. One report states that Russian divisions which crossed the Dnieper north of Kiev have now (broken through to the city’s inner defences. While the position of the German armies defending Gomel anti Kiev lias become critical, Berlin radio’s military commentator. Captain Sertorius, declared that Marshal Timoshenko is preparing for a massive assault against the Crimea across Keren Straits and landings at other points.
The Germans also expect any assault against the Crimea to be supported by a renewal of pressure on the Nogaisk steppe to encircle the Crimea from the north. . '. Captain Sertorius admits withdrawals between Gomel and the Smolensk-Minsk highway. Allied sources say there are very strong indications that the Germans are preparing to evacuate Gomel where Russian guns and bombers have begun a softening-up bombardment of the German positions across the Sozh River while bombers are pounding the escape roads westward. Correspondents point out that a Russian break-through in this area would seriously threaten all the German posi.tions covering Minsk. The Russian drive west of Nevel is an even more serious threat. ~ Captain Sertorius, while claiming that the Nevel push has failed to attain its major objectives, admits that the Russians are fanning out north and south in an effort to roll up the adjoining German sectors. The fall of Gomel would threaten to spilt the German northern and southern armies which would have to move back to keep in touch. The Moscow communique says that Russians in the Vitebsk direction captured 32 inhabited places and on another sector of the same front, occupied the important road junction and stronghold of Dobromysl. They liberated 40,000 Soviet citizens who were being forcibly driven to Germany for slave labour.
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Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 16, 14 October 1943, Page 5
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603SMOKE PALL OVER CITY OF KIEV Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 16, 14 October 1943, Page 5
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